A significant percentage of modern buildings and products are designed to incorporate decorative glass and plastic materials (collectively, “decorative glass materials” or simply “glass materials”). Moreover, most applications of glass materials are also required to meet certain performance standards, such as insulation, moisture control, lighting control, security, structural integrity, etc. Modern design trends suggest that glass materials will continue to play an important role well into the future.
Present modes for producing decorative glass materials have traditionally been limited to one of three applications.
First, glass materials can be manufactured by a specialized process that imparts certain qualities. For example, a glass panel may be produced by a float glass process that introduces additional elements, such as iron or other tinting medium, to produce glass materials with varied light transmittance. Likewise, a plastic panel may be imbued with dyes or pigments to achieve a desired color. Alternatively still, glass materials may be cut into a plurality of unique shapes for assembly into a larger shape, as with stained glass.
Second, the surface of a glass material can also be modified by some form of surface adornment, such as an etching, film, or paint on either the front or back of the glass. In some cases, these adornments may enhance the performance of the glass materials. For example, it is known that some window films can both enhance the decorative appeal of glass materials and modify their light transmittance properties when applied to the exterior surface of a window. In many other cases, however, surface adornments may reduce the performance of glass materials. For example, glass materials that are etched may lose a significant percentage of their strength because etched surfaces have a reduced ability to transfer surface tension. In either case, the long-term durability of surface adornments may be limited because the decorative elements are exposed to the destructive forces of man and nature.
And third, decorative glass materials may be produced by sandwiching a cloth, paper or silk element between two panes. For example, the pattern of glass materials may be modified by insertion of a silk screen print between two panes of clear float glass. Alternatively, the sandwiched element may also be comprised of a film made of polyvinyl butyral or polyurethane film. Like cloth, paper or silk, these films may also modify color; however, they can also have performance enhancing attributes. For example, a single sheet of polyurethane film may block 99% of incoming UV radiation, give the glass a much higher sound insulation rating by virtue of the dampening effect, and, depending on the materials and manufacturing processes, increase impact resistance.
Despite these enhancements, however, the use of sandwiched elements provides comparatively fewer design options than surface adornments. For example, a surface adornment, like an etching, may be applied to provide the glass materials with a desired visual texture, whereas a film may be unable to impart an equivalent visual texture because of its thin profile. Further, a surface adornment, like paint, may be composed with an infinite variety of colors, whereas a film may be chromatically limited by the chemical and physical demands of its manufacturing process.
Similarly, the performance enhancements provided by a sandwiched element are also limited by its physical properties. An interlayer of paper or silk, for example, may not be able to increase the strength of the glass materials because of its limited tensile strength. Likewise, the strength gains afforded to glass materials by a polyvinyl butyral or polyurethane film are also limited to the respective tensile strengths of those materials, even though stronger materials exist. In other respects, the strength gains of sandwiched elements are also limited by the cut resistance of the element. For example, breaking the float glass exterior panel attached to a polyrethene film exposes the film, which is easily cut even if designed to survive the window break.
Thus, despite the increased use of glass materials in modern design, the technologies available to provide concurrent aesthetic and performance enhancements remains limited. Therefore, new performance enhancements for decorative glass materials are needed; especially one that can both match the design options of known surface adornments and improve upon the performance enhancing capabilities of existing technologies.